The Holly and the Ivy
by Solstice Zero
Summary: - "Didn't you bring a heavier coat?" Ianto and Gwen, friendship. Christmas fic.


**A/N:** This was a Christmas gift for LJ user pocky_slash.

* * *

"Can you see," he asked slowly, carefully, "an entrance?"

Gwen couldn't.

They were standing on a hillside, staring down at a metal saucer half-buried in dirt and torn grass. Crash landing from an untellable height. Distance. Possibly one from outside of the solar system. It had pinged on their radar an hour before and they had set out to discover what it was – perhaps another invasion, just in time for Christmas. Aliens did seem to enjoy arriving on Christmas. Cardiff was choked with tourists avoiding London for the day. But it was near midnight now, out in the middle of nowhere, and there was nothing but the sound of wind and the gentle hum from the craft. And the bitter, bitter old.

Ianto glanced at her. "Didn't you bring a heavier coat?"

"No." And she shivered to accent the word.

He shook his head and began to slip down the hillside on the frozen ground, torch beam bouncing wildly and unaimed as he went. Gwen followed, keeping an eye on the saucer, not trusting its near-silence as a good sign – so it was really no wonder that she slipped and nearly fell. Ianto caught her by the arm before she could topple into him and knock him off his feet. She let out a breath that frosted on the air as he set her right again, and he smiled slightly. "All right?" he asked.

"Fine," she said, and moved around him, determined to move past the girlish stumble, embarrassment at least warming her face slightly.

The ship was no less seemingly impenetrable from closer up.

"This is going to be fun," Ianto muttered, reaching out to run a gloved hand along the smooth metal. He pulled back quickly. "Cold," he said, surprised.

Gwen didn't want to test that fact, her hands already half-numb, so instead she rapped two quick knuckles against the side of the saucer. There was no response. She frowned. "Doesn't seem like anyone's home."

Ianto looked at her, eyebrow raised. "Well, only one way to find out." He gestured right. "You go left?"

She nodded, cringing as she set her hands against the metal and began to move slowly around the edge of the craft, searching for any break, any crease that would hint at a way to get inside. There was nothing: it seemed to be molded from one large piece of dull metal. She'd almost reached the place where the Saturn-ring saucer edge dug into the ground when Ianto asked from out of sight, "Why did you come out with me? I could have bullied one of the others into it. You have family over, don't you?"

"Rhys's mum and dad," Gwen grunted, moving her fingers over the smooth surface. "I'll do anything to get away from her. Even drive to the middle of nowhere at half eleven to find some space crap." She rapped the ship again with an echoing _ting_.

"Why does she bother you so much?" Ianto asked, his voice carried over the top of the craft to her by the wind.

"She snores," Gwen said, deadly serious. "Ianto, she snores so loud, I'm surprised Rhys's tad has slept a night since he married her."

She heard Ianto snort a laugh from the other side of the ship, then give a surprised, "Found it!"

She hurried around and saw Ianto kneeling on the cold, flat grass, his fingers digging into two very thin grooves running parallel up the side of the craft from top to bottom, separated by about three feet of the cool metal. His expression was concentrated, almost warranting a tongue stuck out. "I've just got to – a little-" Something internal sighed, and Ianto stepped back, muttering, "Got it." A hatch swung open, splitting from the saucer ring, the top half swinging up and the bottom half swinging down. Red lights glowed from the inside. Ianto lifted his torch and flashed it inside, frowning. "I can't see anything from out here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of Tosh's modified PDA's, then ran it from the top of the aperture to the bottom, shining the torch on the readout. "Doesn't seem to be anything dangerous inside." He looked at her. "Should I go in?"

Gwen nodded. "Make sure there's no one hurt inside. If it crash landed, then there might be injuries."

Ianto set the PDA on the lip of the opening and unzipped his coat before flinging it off to the side. Gwen followed it with her eyes before looking back at him as he recovered the PDA and ducked into the entrance, beginning to move into the ship.

Gwen edged toward his coat.

"It's small," he said, his voice muffled by the walls. "Cramped. Room for about three people."

Gwen hummed a noncommittal reply, moving closer to his coat, fingers outstretched toward it. "Ianto, why aren't you with _your_ family? You've got a sister, haven't you?"

She could _hear_ Ianto's shrug from inside of the ship. "We don't talk really, Rhiannon and I. It was hard to balance work and family." _So I stopped trying,_ was the unspoken addendum. "There's a ship's log written in a language that I think we have on record. It's familiar."

Gwen frowned, even as she absently lifted his coat from the ground, still warm. "Haven't you at least seen her?" She slipped one arm through a sleeve. "I managed to see Rhys's rubbish parents. Even visited my own." The other arm, and wrapped the heavy, overlarge coat around herself with an almost obscene sigh of relief.

"That's different," Ianto said, sounding a little further away, but still coming clear. "You've got Rhys to facilitate that kind of thing. I'd have to do it myself."

"Oh, imagine having to plan a visit for tea," Gwen teased. She found his gloves in his pockets and took one out, slipping it slowly over her fingers. "So much more difficult than being an unofficial ambassador for Earth and scheduling phone calls with the Prime Minister." The other glove. Both too big, but both very warm.

"Well, it isn't me having to actually speak to them." She heard a clang and a mumbled curse as Ianto either crashed into or dropped something. "And you don't have to make awkward conversation about telly with the PM."

"I'm sure he's well caught up on X Factor."

Ianto laughed. Then he sighed. "I think I know what happened."

"What's that?" Gwen came closer to the entrance, listening.

"There's an emergency pod ejected. I think something went wrong with the ship, and whoever was flying it couldn't regain control, so he bailed out before it hit the atmosphere. It was passengerless when it landed."

Gwen nodded, although he couldn't see. "All right," she said. "Let's get it back to the Hub and see if Tosh can figure out what went wrong with it."

"Yep," Ianto said. She heard his metal-ringing footsteps as he came to the exit and ducked down to go through. From his crouch, he looked up at her. He smiled. "Stole my coat, I see."

She shrugged. "You tossed it off. Only fair."

He chuckled softly and straightened, standing in front of her. Then he reached out and, in a strangely intimate gesture, pulled the collar up to cover her neck and gently tucked her hair down. "You're right. Only fair."

She smiled up at him, then pulled him into a hug. "Merry Christmas, Ianto," she said into his chest.

He seemed surprised for a moment, his arms hovering at either side of her, uncertain. Then he relaxed and wrapped them loose around her, laying his cheek on the top of her head. "Merry Christmas, Gwen," he murmured. He paused, before smirking. "This is quite warm, actually. Don't need the coat."

She leaned back and hit his shoulder playfully, then sighed. "We have to call Jack to bring a lorry out."

"Yeah." Ianto stretched the word into a long sigh. "Come on," he said, stepping away from her. "The SUV. We'll have heat and terrible holiday music to keep us company while he comes."

Gwen laughed. "All right," she said, and followed when he started back up the hill.

On an impulse, she reached out and grabbed his hand.

He squeezed very slightly and didn't look back.

She could still see his smile.


End file.
